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My favorite piece of 4th-edition time fuckery was a monster that had the ability to launch spells into the past. So it could do a big blast attack as a free action, but the following turn it would skip its standard action. Then you just really hope that your players don't kill it before that and create a time paradox.
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Aug 27, 2014 14:28
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ProfessorProf posted:My favorite piece of 4th-edition time fuckery was a monster that had the ability to launch spells into the past. So it could do a big blast attack as a free action, but the following turn it would skip its standard action.
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Aug 27, 2014 14:56
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ProfessorProf posted:My favorite piece of 4th-edition time fuckery was a monster that had the ability to launch spells into the past. So it could do a big blast attack as a free action, but the following turn it would skip its standard action. Any chance you remember what it is called? I need a time elemental.
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Aug 27, 2014 15:05
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ProfessorProf posted:My favorite piece of 4th-edition time fuckery was a monster that had the ability to launch spells into the past. So it could do a big blast attack as a free action, but the following turn it would skip its standard action. ...holy gently caress. I am so stealing this. yoink On other topics: I'm about to start my second huge-rear end 4.0 session with my group (where the aforementioned Sorcerer was unhappy about his dagger), and I want to introduce a minor recurring antagonist: a mysterious "Beast" that roams a settlement at night and apparently kills at random. Actually, it's a human who has fallen under a curse, so that his emotions basically run wild and force him into a murderous rage with an accompanying gruesome transformation. He doesn't really know what he's doing, and his mind continues to detoriate. The basic idea is thus a hit-and-run monster that literally tears apart its victims in a spectacularly bloody fashion, and which embodies violent emotion in some way. So far, giving him two turns/round and two abilities seem fancy: the Mindflayer's Brain Eating scaled down, which automatically kills at 0 hp, only with gory dismemberment instead of brain eating; and a huge AoE, which causes Ongoing Psychic 10 (they're lv.6, they have tons of stuff against ongoing, and two players have psychic resistance). Plus a few weak basic attacks. I plan on having this guy run in, nova all kinds of stuff with an action point or two, and then retreat because the players are too sturdy to die to his dismemberment attack instantly; he'd go into hiding in the settlement by transforming back, only to attack later again. The players are supposed to either identify the transforming culprit, or trap him somewhere where he can't retreat (one of the players has basically 'big game hunter' as his background). Thoughts?
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Aug 27, 2014 15:30
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Torquemadras posted:On other topics: I'm about to start my second huge-rear end 4.0 session with my group (where the aforementioned Sorcerer was unhappy about his dagger), and I want to introduce a minor recurring antagonist: a mysterious "Beast" that roams a settlement at night and apparently kills at random. Actually, it's a human who has fallen under a curse, so that his emotions basically run wild and force him into a murderous rage with an accompanying gruesome transformation. He doesn't really know what he's doing, and his mind continues to detoriate. Sounds fun, but be wary that most groups tend to have a lot of ways to pretty much pin a monster to the floor for extended periods of time. It could be tricky to have the guy actually escape without it ending up feeling like fiat.
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Aug 27, 2014 15:38
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crime fighting hog posted:Any chance you remember what it is called? I need a time elemental. It was a homebrew, not something from a book. A solution to the paradox problem could be an element of forced causality to the attack - until it casts the spell that has already resolved in the past, any attack that would prevent it from casting the spell (such as by killing it) automatically misses. That or the paradox causes it to explode violently. e: Third option: If they kill it before it casts the spell, then it changes history, healing any damage you took from the spell. You wouldn't want to run more than one of these at a time. Quinn2win fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Aug 27, 2014 |
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Aug 27, 2014 16:21
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ProfessorProf posted:That or the paradox causes it to explode violently.
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Aug 27, 2014 16:22
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Someone posted a way to download the compendium a while back, but I can't find it... Anyone have it available? I want to plan ahead.
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Aug 27, 2014 16:27
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An interesting idea for a time based monster would be to roll for the amount of actions they get each round. For example, if they roll a 1 they get no actions but if they roll a 5 they get 2 standard and a move action. Could be kinda swingy, though, and you'd have to make a list.
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Aug 27, 2014 16:52
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Nihilarian posted:An interesting idea for a time based monster would be to roll for the amount of actions they get each round. For example, if they roll a 1 they get no actions but if they roll a 5 they get 2 standard and a move action. Could be kinda swingy, though, and you'd have to make a list. 2. Monster loses its move action. 3-4. No change. 5. Monster gets an extra move action. 6. Monster gets an extra standard action.
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Aug 27, 2014 17:10
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How about some traits: Must have blood If monster misses dismemberment attack it moves at normal speed, otherwise it moves at 1.5x and has following traits: Numbed Senses It can move at half speed when subjected to any status that restricts movement. (Im pretty sure this one exists somewhere else with another name.) Slippery Bastard Can shift 5 when moved off its turn. Daily: Psychic Backblast Trigger: bloodied: close burst 10: pushes away everyone in range to edges of burst, Monster takes move action at current speed (triggers no reactions) and gains Numbed Senses The idea is that it comes in at 1.5x speed to attack and if it messes up and becomes bloodied Backblast allows it to run, have it leave a trail at that point, psychic or physical. Whatever the party tries to track really. I like solo monsters, you can do some cool poo poo you usually wouldnt bother to track.
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Aug 27, 2014 17:19
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Rigged Death Trap posted:The idea is that it comes in at 1.5x speed to attack and if it messes up and becomes bloodied Backblast allows it to run, have it leave a trail at that point, psychic or physical. Whatever the party tries to track really. Some very cool stuff! This should keep the critter mobile enough to keep lurking for a while. Especially the Psychic Backblast, that fits nicely with the psychic AoE I had in mind anyway!
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Aug 27, 2014 19:08
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fatherdog posted:
Thank you, it is for my game in which I try to allow crafting.
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Aug 28, 2014 01:24
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Alright, so in my (now) 7th-level Zeitgeist game, we're at the climax of Adventure 3. My players have just triggered all three over-leveled encounters at once and have split the party three ways, too. This was dumb, but somehow they're not all dead, which is kind of the outcome I expected. (In part this is because I've been forgetting poo poo since did I mention I'm running three encounters at once?) Instead of deal with some dangerous assassins down in the basement, some of the group decided to shortcut and chase right after Big Bad 1, where she was busy stealing something from Big Bad 2. In theory, every encounter is hard but fair. Instead, this is something like a Level 14 encounter in three parts, with a split party. As a result, their resources are pretty well entirely drained, and they still have Big Bad 1 to deal with after her escape. I love this game.
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Aug 28, 2014 05:53
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Looking for some C&C on my next two encounters for next session! Little background: the PCs have been hired by the University of Argive to provide protection in a excavation mission for Thran artifacts. They've gone to a completely war hosed part of the world where ancient battlefields of the Thran vs. Phyrexia remain, yadda yadda. They discovered Phyrexia (think fantasy borg with spikes) are prodding away with scouting parties in their world again. They're heading to a village of local barbarians to find a mountain guide, who will take them to where the excavation site is. Unfortunately, the village is burning when they find it, and so the combat is against the bad dudes setting the village on fire and who are also slaughtering people, while a skill challenge is to save people from burning homes and thatched roof cottages and poo poo. I'm thinking the grid is the town square with buildings all around, four of which are on fire with people trapped inside. Various skill checks include putting out the flames, busting down the doors, convincing trapped people to flee instead of hiding in burning buildings and so on. What I'm wondering is what the benefits should be if they succeed on helping people. Some later bonus? More treasure? Bonuses to combat rolls for the fight? If they fail, they fail to save the guide and it takes them longer to reach the site. As for the site itself, its an ancient foundry guarded by an giant warmachine (I reskinned a nasty solo that goes twice per round) and that has beam cannons set up at the big door as minions. The skill challenge here is opening the door and rushing in because they'll be pretty low on surges by this point. I'm trying more and more to kill the 5 minute work day, which was something that was a problem last campaign because I couldn't think of reasons they needed to rush. They can get through the door to run away from the big machine guard, use arcana/thievery to reprogram the cannons to target the boss, or just try to kill it themselves. I'm also thinking, in terms of skill challenges, letting people burn healing surges to get bonuses on checks. Does that sound too easy though? We're level 12 and I want them to feel like their just barely getting by each combat.
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Sep 2, 2014 13:29
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Im DMing after not.playing for 8 months or so. After about four hours there have been 12 failure 1s rolled. I started going easy on them when they were rolled in combat, but i need some ideas to penslize their rolls, cause they are the unluckiest people ive played with.
ButtWolf fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 18:28
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I was thinking if they save enough people, they feel invigorated by their accomplishments and can gain back a couple surges or maybe even a daily power before they go to the last fight of the day. Treasure works too. I'm worried though. I plan on this being a shorter campaign but want to ramp up the power like a long one. We're level 12, I want to end at 30, so I was thinking of jumping the players up 3 levels between adventures (each adventure is 3-4 sessions in my mind). So how do I keep up the gold and items so they aren't lagging behind? I think I can crunch how much to give them gold-wise and tell them to go hog wild in the store between sessions.
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Sep 2, 2014 18:34
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If they save everyone, someone gives them a family heirloom that they think is worth 5000gp or whatever, but a certain collector will pay 40000. Just an idea.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:14
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You're using inherent bonuses, right?
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Sep 3, 2014 00:28
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Really Pants posted:You're using inherent bonuses, right? Of course!
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Sep 3, 2014 01:58
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Alright, got stats for my next session's baddie using power2ools or whats-it-called:  Some entries are missing, but I don't think anyone cares for the exact subtype or its strength score. So here's the idea: when the players are chilling in their allocated inn rooms, this bad boy jumps in through the window, trying to get one character alone. It'll immediately grab that character and burn an action point to use its dismemberment attack, so that the players immediately know what its deal is: be grabbed = be stunned and die. The other players should immediately be alarmed, so the Beast will use its next turn to block the room's doorway using Fling and nearby objects. If any players already got inside, it'll use Terror instead and try to retreat. Basically, I want this guy to try and isolate himself and his currently grabbed victim with one turn, and use the other of his two turns to further murder the grabbed character. If it has no-one grabbed, it'll try to grab and dismember in the same round. Once bloodied, it'll immediately bail out, burning its second action point if necessary. It'll probably return later during other encounters, but without the action points, half its HP missing and no second turn. This dude is meant for four reasonably optimized 6th level characters - two strikers, one defender, one leader; I'm planning on ambushing the defender this way! Thoughts? Am I going to murder the party? In a good way, or a bad way?
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Sep 3, 2014 08:16
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My biggest suggestion with any monster that can take multiple turns is that it needs a way to clear "end of next turn" effects. This isn't standard solo design, but imo it should be.
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Sep 3, 2014 12:49
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Does your group have any reliable forced teleportation or forced movement of 2 squares or greater? Because if not, I don't see how a successfully landed Horrifying Dismemberment isn't essentially a death sentence, short of deciding to Fling a grabbed creature—which would have questionable reasoning given that Dismemberment should usually be the better choice if it's got a grabbed creature. In general, action denial isn't very fun for the receiving end on either side of the screen, doubly so if you have no way to affect when the effect ends. I would recommend dropping the stun on Dismemberment down to a daze. That way the grabbed creature actually has an option between attacking and trying to escape. If you make the switch in status effects, you probably want to also have some sort of after effect on the power where the escaped creature is dazed until the start of their next turn so they can't potentially gain lost actions back by trying to escape first. This is less of a concern if you definitely plan on having The Beast flee without regards for consequences when it hits bloodied and you—and your players—don't mind a slight game of rocket tag where at least one person on Team PC is likely to lose their rocket launcher until the game's over.
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Sep 3, 2014 17:01
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Grabbed and stunned is way too harsh, as is instant death if reduced to 0. Don't do that poo poo. Otherwise it looks pretty interesting.
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Sep 3, 2014 18:10
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Yeah, effects that trigger on the players being in a really bad spot are a great way to get a TPK. It's a bit like giving your 3e monsters the Cleave feat (allows a free attack when you take someone out) - if the power isn't being used, the players won't notice it exists, and if it is being used, you're kicking your players while they're literally down.
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Sep 3, 2014 20:24
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Okay, cool. I can drop the stun and instant death just fine - that was more because I copied the Mindflayers from the Monster Vault... which are a tad higher level, yeah. Daze instead of stun should suffice, the players can escape by themselves then. As for forced movement: couldn't just any other player use a bullrush on grabbed characters? Although the Beast's reach is 2, I wanted to break the grab even when the target is only moved a single square from an outside source. I'm not quite sure what the rules are on getting someone out of a grab via forced movement. In any case, the strategy is to grab one guy, then abscond (while still in the immediate area) and resume Dismemberment. If necessary, the second turn is used to stall the others instead of dismembering right away: block the corridors with Fling, push back everyone with Terror and flee, or - if the grabbed player turns out to be a nuisance or the Beast wants to flee anyway - throw 'em at another player to create another temporary obstacle. I'm thinking of adding a slower climb speed, so that the players have to chase it around the entire building. (Flinging people of the roof instead of dismembering them might give the Beast a chance to face only a single character...) Thanks for the input, everyone. 
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Sep 3, 2014 21:32
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Relevant grab rules are that teleportation will end a grab and forced movement can break a grab if it results in the grabbed creature's end position exceeding the range of the grabber's initial power. So yes, you could bull rush your own teammate or the enemy—if you're any good with strength (or if the target has low fort)—but in this case, you would need two successful bull rushes before the Beast gets one of its turns. A monster should also probably have some sort of power for moving a grabbed creature (usually at either half or full speed) if it wants to be able to do so.
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Sep 4, 2014 00:12
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I'm starting my first D&D 4 game two weeks from now, gonna try to convince my gaming group it's not RPG Satan come to destroy us all. I was planning on using Dark Sun, as it's a pretty cool setting, and running through the three pre-made adventures (Bloodsand Arena, then the Campaign Setting book one, and then marauders of the Dune Sea). Any helpful advice for a first-time D&D4 DM?
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Sep 6, 2014 05:49
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MonsieurChoc posted:I'm starting my first D&D 4 game two weeks from now, gonna try to convince my gaming group it's not RPG Satan come to destroy us all. I was planning on using Dark Sun, as it's a pretty cool setting, and running through the three pre-made adventures (Bloodsand Arena, then the Campaign Setting book one, and then marauders of the Dune Sea). Any helpful advice for a first-time D&D4 DM? Start at level 1. Use MM3+ monsters. Don't feel too bound by the rules for skill challenges, they're not very good. Be open to creative use of powers - getting away from a 'RAW is everything' mindset is useful. Above all, embrace what makes the game good - combat. It's a strong combat game with a relatively freefrom non-combat system tacked on. SO embrace the combat. Try to set a pattern of describing rather than just calling numbers, but if you don't roll that way... don't worry. It's a fun game. If people can't get their head around HP vs surges, fall back on the Die Hard analogy.
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Sep 6, 2014 09:17
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Be very careful that you don't use too much combat, though. I feel like two or three combats per session is enough. If your pre-written adventures include a bunch of combats that don't really advance the plot, feel free to cut a few out. Regarding party composition - I feel like controllers are a bit on the fiddly side for my liking - lots of modifiers to keep track of. Your party probably won't need more than one defender or leader, but you can never go wrong stacking strikers, 'cause everyone likes to do damage.
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Sep 6, 2014 09:57
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Gort posted:Be very careful that you don't use too much combat, though. I feel like two or three combats per session is enough. If your pre-written adventures include a bunch of combats that don't really advance the plot, feel free to cut a few out. For beginning people, 2-3 combats a session is a lot. 4e combat takes a while even with MM3 rules especially for newbies who don't have what their abilities do memorized. Which is another thing. Don't be afraid to cut encounters short if they're dragging on and it's clear who's winning.
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Sep 6, 2014 12:04
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Yeah, calling encounters when they're over save for the cleanup is very important. I'd say three shortish combats, two mid-length or one long multi-stage one makes for a good 5 hour session. Party composition: a leader is probably the most important thing, everything else will take care of itself. But leaders are great fun to play in this edition!
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Sep 6, 2014 12:09
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djw175 posted:For beginning people, 2-3 combats a session is a lot. 4e combat takes a while even with MM3 rules especially for newbies who don't have what their abilities do memorized. Which is another thing. Don't be afraid to cut encounters short if they're dragging on and it's clear who's winning. Speaking of memorising abilities - make sure you make power cards for every power the players have. (should only be 5 or so per player at level 1) Makes the game so much slicker - use a power, flip the card. Makes it obvious to the players what options they have left. You can also do tokens for action points, second wind and even healing surges if you like.
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Sep 6, 2014 12:38
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ProfessorProf posted:My favorite piece of 4th-edition time fuckery was a monster that had the ability to launch spells into the past. So it could do a big blast attack as a free action, but the following turn it would skip its standard action. This is very cool! Totally putting a monster like this in Strike! Speaking of which, I'm compiling lists of cool powers and traits for Strike! What are your favourite 4e powers and traits? I shall blatantly steal them for the betterment of gamerkind. One of my favourites was the souped-up displacer beast I used that reflected the players' conditions/penalties back onto them. Simple, but forced them to change away from their usual lockdown->beatdown routine.
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Sep 6, 2014 13:36
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Come and Get It plus a power that hits everyone next to you was a combo the fighter in my 4e game fell in love with. Commanders Strike is always fun as well (IE: Trade your own attack in for giving one of your friends an attack instead) Anything that lets you hit the enemy and heal your friends in the same action was great for leaders, too. Finally, "Feather me yon oaf" was always great - point out an enemy and all your buddies get to shoot him for free.
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Sep 6, 2014 14:11
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Jimbozig posted:This is very cool! Totally putting a monster like this in Strike! The Frenzied Berserker paragon path for barbarians, while mostly irredeemable poop, had the most sick awesome level 20 daily I've ever seen in 4e:  MORTAL KOMBAT
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Sep 6, 2014 14:22
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Thanks for the tips!djw175 posted:For beginning people, 2-3 combats a session is a lot. 4e combat takes a while even with MM3 rules especially for newbies who don't have what their abilities do memorized. Which is another thing. Don't be afraid to cut encounters short if they're dragging on and it's clear who's winning. I have always been willing to just have the enemies give up or run away when the players have obviously won. I will have to think of something for monsters that aren't intelligent though. Gort posted:Speaking of memorising abilities - make sure you make power cards for every power the players have. (should only be 5 or so per player at level 1) That's a good idea! I was planning on using some blank cards to give to players to write their powers down, but I think there's actual Power Cards you can print somewhere? That would be even better.
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Sep 6, 2014 16:07
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MonsieurChoc posted:I will have to think of something for monsters that aren't intelligent though. Example: a group of undead. If they've killed the vampire overlords and there's just a couple zombies or whatever shambling around and they're like 0 threat, just have the players describe how they finish off the remaining few and press on. The important thing is to not waste time on things of little threat or consequence.
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Sep 6, 2014 17:12
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AXE COP posted:The Frenzied Berserker paragon path for barbarians, while mostly irredeemable poop, had the most sick awesome level 20 daily I've ever seen in 4e: Wow. I was actually looking for monster powers and traits because the classes are done, but that power is perfect for my duelist class. I'm a bit at a loss to figure out how to value the effect compared to something simple like ongoing damage, but I'm sure I can number-crunch it into shape. Gort posted:Come and Get It plus a power that hits everyone next to you was a combo the fighter in my 4e game fell in love with. You'll be happy to hear that these are already in. Anyone who saw a 4e fighter knows that CaGI is the best loving power.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:26
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MonsieurChoc posted:I was planning on using Dark Sun, as it's a pretty cool setting, and running through the three pre-made adventures (Bloodsand Arena, then the Campaign Setting book one, and then marauders of the Dune Sea). Unfortunately, I don't have a good alternative in mind unless you can somehow get ahold of the Ashes of Athas organized play campaign modules. dwarf74 might be able to weigh in on this more since he's got considerable Dark Sun experience, if I recall.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:52
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